


lately, he's unravelling

by hounds_of_love



Category: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Genre: Captain will neither confirm or deny, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, but he doesn't mind, especially when it's the captain, everything is 'implied', just a bit, just in terms of how quick they move on after one of them is upset, kissin', references to the Smiths (that should be an archive warning), so many tags i'm sorry, the general selfishness and single-mindedness of the ghosts, there's a diary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:14:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29765697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hounds_of_love/pseuds/hounds_of_love
Summary: A visitor comes to Button House: his grandmother has passed away, and in her attic, he has found an old diary of hers spanning years. In it, he has found that her brother, a Captain, was posted here during WW2.Meanwhile, the Captain is left reeling. His sister is dead. Her diary has been examined by a boy who has already drawn his own conclusions about what he has read, and is sitting in their kitchen revealing them to Alison.Having certain details of his life disclosed to the people who don’t even know his name, but also know him so well, might just give him the opportunity to bare his soul a bit more, on his own terms.
Relationships: Alison/Mike (Ghosts TV 2019), Pat Butcher/The Captain (Ghosts TV 2019), The Captain/Lieutenant Havers (Ghosts TV 2019)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 35





	lately, he's unravelling

**Author's Note:**

> hello all! thank you for reading this! this is my first fic for Ghosts and i'm v nervous so please be nice and leave comments and kudos if you want to!  
> the title comes from the song 'unravelling' by Francis Cone.  
> I also have a general playlist that I listened to while writing and I'll put it in the comments or edit these notes if anyone requests it :)

In all honesty, it had started a week or so before the visitor came, though none of them knew it. 

They had been in the large room with the piano and the sofas listening to Julian describe ‘pop-tarts’. 

“I’ve had those!” Pat exclaimed. He turned round with a smile to the Captain, who stood behind him, behind the sofa. He seemed distracted but he looked down to give Pat a polite smile. 

“Um, excuse me! No interruptions, Pat-rick!” Julian gestured widely with his hands. Pat settled back down. 

Julian drawled on for another minute to explain how you prepared them. Mary raised her hand to ask a question. As Julian pointed to her, the Captain had let out a small involuntary noise, bringing a hand to touch his chest lightly. Julian hesitated, frowning at the others who could only shrug. Uncharacteristically nicely, he asked the Captain if he was alright. Feeling the other’s eyes on him, the Captain had zoned back in, frowning at them, his hand still pressed lightly to his chest. 

“Yes, yes.” He started to gaze around the room, as if looking for something, “I just thought I heard…?”

He turned around quickly on the spot, staring at all the corners of the room intently, before rounding back to them. He shook his head. 

“Nevermind. Carry on.”

They all moved on.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

He arrived on a bleak, rainy day. Alison and Mike hadn’t known what to do with themselves so they resigned themselves to watching Friends from the beginning with whichever ghosts happened to potter in and out throughout the day. Kitty had stayed with them all day so far. The Captain had only joined when Pat had gone to get him, and pretended to be annoyed, but smirked whenever Chandler made a sarcastic comment. Thomas sighed over Rachel so loudly that Alison had to enforce a talking ban at the start of the next episode.  
One minute, Chandler was stuck in an ATM vestibule with Jill Goodacre and the next, Robin had burst through the wall to tell them all that someone had arrived in a car. 

They all ran to the window to peer out. They watched a man in a big coat stumble out of a silver car and up the driveway. 

“Did you order a takeaway?” Mike asked Alison, noticing the large bag the man carried. Alison shook her head. 

They rock, paper, scissored for who had to deal with him and Alison lost. Mike ran off to go and watch TV in bed. Alison got to the door just as the mystery person knocked loudly. After waiting a few seconds to seem a little bit more normal, she pulled the door open with a flourish. 

“Hello there!” She said, in a friendly way, trying not to pay too much attention to the ghosts bustling behind her. 

“‘Ooo is it!” Mary piped up excitedly. The others talked over each other, trying to guess.

“Hello, are you, are you the owner?” The man before her was around her age, peering at her through a wet fringe. He was actively dripping on the front doorstep. 

“If you looked more proper, he wouldn’t even have to ask, you know!” Lady Button remarked haughtily. 

“Yes. Yes I am. And Mike. He’s here too. We’re both owners.” Alison shook herself abruptly, “Sorry, who are you?” 

“Oh. Right. Yes. I’m Teddy. I think I might have family connections to this house!” He explained excitedly. 

Alison narrowed her eyes, gripping the front door tightly. 

“D’you mean like claims to it or…?” 

“Oh god, no. I found a diary in my Granny’s attic. Apparently her brother was posted here during the war. I thought I’d come along and check it out, if that’s alright with you, of course?” 

“Ummm.” Alison turned round, as if looking for Mike, to study the Captain’s reaction. He was staring intently at the young man, his eyes narrowed. 

“Get it over with quickly.” Was all he said, striding off to lead the way to the kitchen. Pat followed quickly at his heels, asking if he was alright, if it was him, if he had known about the diary. Alison heard the Captain mumble something to Pat before she replied. 

“Yes! Yes, you can. Come in. Let’s go to the kitchen and get you a cup of tea and you can warm up.” She opened the door properly to let him in and he ferociously wiped his shoes on the mat inside. She showed him where to hang his coat up. He was wearing a well-worn woollen jumper underneath. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“You never mentioned a sister?” It wasn’t a question but Pat’s accent and intonation made it one. The Captain looked at him steadily for a moment. Alison had noticed they had been getting on better recently, that the Captain snapped less at Pat. Right now he seemed to be making a conscious effort to keep his expression calm. 

They were all clustered round Alison and Teddy in the kitchen. She had made Teddy a cup of tea (2 sugars, dash of milk!) and he had started to explain what he found, placing a thick leather bound notebook on the table in front of them. 

The Captain and Teddy spoke at the same time. 

“We were twins” 

“They were twins.” 

The Captain huffed, annoyed and his face dropped into a steady glare. 

“Oh? That’s interesting.” Alison took a sip of her tea. “What were their names?” 

The Captain tensed slightly. The other’s leaned forward, interested to know what he had refused to tell them. 

“Well, Granny’s Joanie. But her brother, the Captain. She always just called him Cap.”

Alison winced at the loud reactions of the other ghosts, while the Captain let out a happier huff. 

“What are the chances!”  
“Oh, no fair!”  
“What a cop-out!”

Teddy blundered on. 

“He was obsessed with being in the army, even from a young age. Something their dad had drilled into him, I think.”

“What makes you say that?” Alison asked, stirring more sugar into her tea. 

“Honestly, I can’t put my finger on it. Same as how I think Cap must be named after their dad. At one point, she recounts an argument they all had, and writes the dad as calling him ‘junior’. But I don't know what their dad was called. Granny has never told me. He died when they were teenagers.” 

“You’re a junior then! Me too, mate!” Julian laughed, leaning to slap the Captain on the arm but the other man flinched back. 

“Do shut _up_ , Julian.” The Captain snapped. 

“oOoh, _someone’s_ testy!” Julian teased. 

“So how come you found this diary then?” Alison asked, a bit too loudly to be entirely normal. Teddy frowned at her for a second but carried on. 

“Well, um, Granny died just over a week ago. She left me her house. I was going through the attic and I found it amongst the boxes. God, sorry.” Teddy had started to tear up a little bit. Alison looked lost. 

The Captain stared at the ground. 

“I’m so sorry, Captain.” Pat whispered. He went to lay a comforting hand on the Captain’s shoulder, but seeing him tense up, he thought better of it. 

“Joanie’s...gone then.” The Captain whispered brokenly. He swallowed. “That’s fine.” 

“It’s not fine.” Alison said, before remembering the company. She patted Teddy awkwardly on the shoulder, “It’s not fine. But it will get better.” 

Teddy composed himself, rubbing his eyes with the scratchy cuff of his woollen jumper. 

“Sorry, it’s just all made me so emotional. I sat down in the attic and read it in one sitting. She was not a consistent writer at all so there are so many years condensed into this one book. Like, god, it starts when she’s 11, goes through school, her dad dying, both world wars, her husband dying. And then the last entry, god, just says, look,” Teddy flipped to the last used page of the book and ran his finger over the line as he read it, “‘Cap died. My soul shall never be the same’. And that’s it. Nothing else. That was 70 odd years ago. She had children, grandchildren, she even has a great grandchild from my sister but 70 years ago, her brother died and she knew she’d never come back from that. Before she passed, she was calling out for him - I’ve never believed in life after death before but that moment convinced me there must be something, because she looked so fucking happy. Oh god, here I go again.” Teddy braced his elbow on the kitchen table, and cradled his head in his hand. 

Alison swallowed audibly. The Captain was staring with an open, lost look. He had not moved a muscle since Teddy had said Joanie had gone. 

“That’s totally understandable. Maybe we shouldn’t talk about how your granny passed on. You said you wanted to talk about the Captain, something about Button House?” She tried her best to distract him. 

“Yes, apparently he was stationed here in World War Two. He was promoted to Captain, in control of a small number of people here. I don’t have much information about that though. Granny was allowed to visit here a few times and Cap would go home to her when he was on leave. She actually had her wedding here because he couldn’t get permission to leave. She said that was one of the happiest days of her life. He walked her down the aisle. She wrote that she would have asked him even if their dad was still alive, because he was more of a parent than he’d ever been.” 

Alison poured more tea into his cup, enraptured by this version of the Captain that she had never been privy to. She thought back to Sam and Clare’s wedding and how determined he had been to make it happen. Had he been thinking about Joanie then? 

“Granny, well, she never said anything but I got the impression that their father hadn’t been the best. It wasn’t until I found this old diary in the attic recently that I quite realised the extent.” Teddy started to flick through the pages hurriedly. 

The Captain moved for the first time since he’d heard the news, taking a hesitant step forward. He could feel the other ghosts eyes on him, not Teddy and he closed his eyes, trying to make his breathing more even. No doubt there were secrets in that diary that he had quite literally taken to the grave. And for this _boy_ to have read it, without a care in the world for his own feelings. 

“It was tragic really. The way that parents thought they could treat their own children. There’s this one extract, from when they were about fifteen. Let me try to find it.”

And, well, as if the Captain didn’t know _exactly_ what he was talking about there. 

“That’s enough now, Alison.” The Captain snapped. She jumped slightly in her seat, looking to all the world like she’d forgotten Teddy had been talking about _him_ , about their very Captain. 

“I mean it.” He added, softly this time, “Please.” 

Alison nodded quickly. 

“Yes. Right. Well, thanks for this. I’d rather not hear about things like that though, if you don’t mind.” She leaned back as Teddy suddenly slid a photo across the table to her. 

“I forgot to show you these actually. This is a photo of Cap and his Lieutenant - they were both stationed here for a while. He left though, Granny said. They died within a few weeks of each other actually, later on though. I’m not sure when. There isn’t a date in her diary. There’s another to go with it, here. Must be the same day.” He slipped another photo under the first one. 

The Captain let out an anxious noise involuntarily. He stuttered forward awkwardly to look at the photos that Teddy had pulled out of the diary. He remembered exactly when Joanie had visited the house for a weekend. He had shown her round the garden with Havers, at the very height of their friendship. She and Havers had got on like a house on fire, just like he had hoped they would. He had been unintentionally seeking her approval - he knew that much now.  
She had positioned them in front of the rose bushes and said something to make them laugh, in that special way she could. Haver’s head was thrown back in delight and he had turned to look at him, with a smile of his own. His eyes had a complete openness in them, an honesty that made him make Joanie promise not to parade it around, under the pretence of being shy about showing off his new uniform. 

The conversation that followed was the closest he ever came to telling a living soul about his...well, about him, and only because Joanie had seen right through his weak excuse. 

“I won’t show anyone. And I won’t tell anyone either. You’re always safe with me.” She said simply, gently touching the lapels of his suit. 

He nodded seriously, “Thank you. I love you.” 

“I know you do.” She had winked, and left him. They never mentioned anything about it again, but sometimes Joanie got a misty look in her eyes when he held her children in a gentle way that their father never had. 

Teddy continued to talk. 

“She never said anything in the diary that might implicate her brother, not over all the years it took her to fill it up. But reading between the lines, and you know maybe I’m way off base, but sometimes she seemed to be writing in a code. Like when she says he’s not the marrying sort, a bachelor, how he preferred to spoil his nephews rotten instead, just like all these euphemisms and implications, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. You get where I’m going with this.”

Alison cast a nervous glance at the Captain. He did not return her look, trying his best to ignore what Teddy was saying, despite the fact he was making inferences about things that might have had him locked up or killed back in the day. The Captain felt an all too familiar twist in his gut, a feeling of fear he’d carried with him through all of his life, and death.

“I just wish he’d lived to see now, where he could be at least a bit more free to be himself, to love authentically. Does that make any sense?” 

“Yes, I think so.” Alison was trying to tread carefully, “You can never know with things like this. But all we can ever hope is that he had happiness in other places.” 

“That’s true. He seemed to really love Granny and her kids. Just kind of showing that family is whatever you make of it. Especially after her husband died. God, war is just so tragic.” 

Tragic indeed. Alison subtly fished out the second photo from under the one of him and Havers. This one he had had a copy of, his most prized possession but it had been years and years since he had seen it. Him and Joanie next to the rose bushes this time, taken by Havers. Joanie had always been a head shorter than him, with strawberry blonde hair that couldn’t be seen in the black and white, though you could somehow tell that the Captain himself was going grey, which always seemed unfair. He had an arm around her shoulder, and they were both grinning at each other. Even with the grey hair, they looked ten years younger than they were. 

The Captain stood and drank in the sight of his sister. 

“Was she happy?” He asked, his voice breaking slightly. 

Alison repeated his question to Teddy. 

“God I hope so. I’m not exaggerating when I say she taught me everything I know about love, about kindness, just how to be a good person. She missed her brother, and maybe she wasn’t the same but she treasured us. She lived to a hundred and ten, almost three times as long as he did. That’s a lot of time to make more happy memories.” 

“You’re very wise, Teddy.” Alison said. “Listen, would you mind making a copy of these two photos for me. I would just love to display them somewhere in the house.” 

“Of course, I can try to digitise them and you can print them in good quality too.” 

Teddy started to pack away the diary. 

“Do you mind if I walk round the grounds a bit?” 

“I can have Mike give you a bit of a tour of the house if you’d like?” Alison asked, but Teddy was already shaking his head. 

“No, no, it’s ok. I don’t want to impose. And, well, truth be told. The house is giving me a bit of a weird vibe right here.” He rubbed his chest for emphasis. “Feels a bit haunted by memories, if you get me.” 

“Haunted by _memories_ my arse.” Alison muttered under her breath, “I’ll walk you to the door.” She called after him, and skipped to catch him up as he made his way to the door. 

Silence filled the room. The Captain was staring down at the space where Teddy had sat, where the photo of himself and Joanie had been unceremoniously shoved back into that diary. His shoulders were tense with hurt and anger. 

Julian gave Pat a push on the back that made him step forward, towards the Captain’s furious space. Pat turned back to glare at them all before he continued forward. 

He reached out to try to lay a gentle hand on the Captain’s arm. 

“Listen, Cap, I just want to say, on behalf of all of us - ”

“Don’t touch me.” The Captain swiped the hand away from him and stalked quickly out of the room without looking back. “And don’t follow me!” He yelled through the wall. 

There was silence in the room again for a moment before Pat let out an awkward little whining noise. He tapped his closed fists against his side, a bit like a penguin, as he was wont to do when he was nervous. 

“Ohhhh. I’m gonna have to go check on him, sorry guys. Can’t live with myself if I don’t!” And then he was off, running through the same wall that the Captain had just disappeared through. 

Julian laughed awkwardly. 

“ _That_ is _not_ going to go well.” 

“Aye. T’is not.” Mary nodded sagely, “Tears’ll be the end of that.” 

“We don’t know that! Pat’s very nice.” Kitty clapped happily, “I’m sure the Captain will feel better in no time!” 

“How can he?” Lady Button shrieked, “He’s never told us anything about himself, and now he’s just had his whole life, the dastardly business with his father and whatever that boy was implying about the Captain, all laid out in front of us.” 

“Will no end well for Pat.” Robin grunted. 

“Indeed.” Thomas piped up dramatically, “If t’were possible to die once again, Captain would bludgeon poor Pat to death with his silly little swagger stick.” 

Alison wandered back in, out of breath. 

“Captain, I’m so sorry about that. I should have - wait.” She straightened up and looked round the room, “Where’s the Captain?” 

Robin lifted an arm and pointed at the wall. 

“Captain left.” He shrugged. 

“An’ Patrick did a-follow ‘im.”

“To offer him comfort!” Kitty added enthusiastically. 

“Oh god,” Alison pulled a face at them, “Best leave them to it. Poor Pat. Can’t wait to clean up that mess later.”

\------------------------------------------------------------

Pat found the Captain, unsurprisingly, in his room, where no-one dared to go without ‘knocking’ and certainly not uninvited. But Pat strode in anyway. This was a crisis and deserved special measures. 

The Captain was leaning with both arms braced against a desk, staring at his hands with his head bowed. 

“Hullo, Captain.” Pat announced himself. 

He could see the Captain’s shoulders and back ripple as he tensed further. He stood up slowly and turned round. His eyes were steely. 

“Patrick. I told you not to follow me.” 

“Yes. Well. I know that.” Pat stuttered out, “But you shouldn’t be alone after that.”

“Yes. I should. I want to be alone. I _asked_ to be alone.” 

“I know, I know. But. Don’t you think you should talk about what happened? We could talk about Joanie if you’d like. She seemed really lovely.” 

The Captain stalked forward, furiously, brandishing his swagger stick. Pat tried to take hasty steps back. 

“Don’t you say her name!” He snapped. 

He paused in his anger slightly, noticing Pat leaning backwards away from him. Sighing slightly, he lowered his swagger stick to his side and turned back away from him. 

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said, his tone was soft, but warning. 

“No. I don’t.” Pat admitted, shrugging, “But I’ve been told I’m a good listener.”

The Captain was silent. Pat persisted. 

“You know, if you ever want to talk about what Teddy mentioned. Your...your father or the whole…” he lowered his voice, “... _gay_ thing then you can.”

If anything, Pat had somehow made the Captain angrier. He could see it in the tenseness of his shoulders, in the way he gripped his swagger stick, no doubt turning his knuckles white. 

“Or not.” He carried on, “I’m just saying, it’s much more normal now. You’ve always been so secretive, you never let us in. But you don’t have to hide anything anymore. Maybe it would make you feel better if you-”

“If I _what_ , Patrick!” The Captain shouted, turning round to face Pat. They were standing closer than he usually permitted. 

Pat, for all his general blundering and sunny disposition, did know when to stop. So, he stood, calmly not breaking eye contact, while the Captain glared stonily down at him, breathing heavily. Then, for the briefest moment, Pat saw the Captain’s eyes flick, inexplicably, to his lips. 

He leant forward suddenly, grabbing Pat’s jaw in both hands and kissed him with a desperation Pat had never known. And despite the part of him that worried this was the result of a nervous breakdown, Pat didn’t have the willpower to stop himself from standing on his tiptoes to give back as good as he was getting, just for a second. But when he lifted his hands to gently grasp at the Captain’s lapels, the other man pulled back abruptly and took a half a step back. 

“I’m so sorry.” The Captain was staring not quite at him, somewhere in the air near him, his eyes wide, “I don’t, I don’t know what. I mean. I don’t know why I... when you’re not…”

The Captain trailed off. He touched his lips gently. The small frown in between his eyebrows told Pat that he was moments away from leaving and then pretending this never happened. He had to make this right, had to let The Captain know that - 

“It’s okay.” He whispered, gently. 

The Captain’s eyes snapped to his. 

“It’s okay.” Pat repeated, more resolutely, “I didn’t mind. I don’t mind. It’s, uh, very welcome actually.” 

The Captain’s eyebrows raised. 

“Oh? You never said that... I mean I didn’t know that you were…” He trailed off. 

“A bit, yes.” 

“Oh. Well. Shall I?” The Captain took a hesitant step forward, still so unsure, but still glancing again at his lips. 

“Yes.” Pat reached up this time to cradle the Captain’s face and brought him down to meet him with nothing but certainty. 

As their mouths connected again, softer this time, the Captain let out the smallest gasp, that was somehow the most expressive, and most vulnerable Pat had ever heard him. His arms snaked around Pat’s waist and shoulders. Pat felt dizzy at the firm pressure. This was the result of years of yearning finally coming to a head and god, could he feel it.  
His imagination got carried away, picturing where this second kiss might lead. His stomach swooped as he imagined the Captain’s strong arms picking him up so that he could wrap his legs around his waist, him carrying him back so they could lean against the wall, and anything that might happen after that. He gripped the hair at the back of the Captain’s head tightly in response and got a tiny involuntary moan in return. He smoothed the hair down and dragged his hands back to the Captain’s jaw, moving his lips, soft and pliant to catch his each time. 

Several moments passed in a dizzying flash. The Captain eventually broke the kiss once more and lay his forehead against Pat’s, breathing heavily. Pat wished he could see what the Captain’s lips might look like when they were reddened by kissing, by the few nips he had got in there, but he supposed this wrecked look on his face, and the slightly out of place hair (for now at least) would be the best he would get, considering that they were, and he meant this with all the love in the world, dead. 

“Thank you.” the Captain whispered when the ability to form words returned to him, “Thank you, for everything. For all of this.” 

Pat untucked his head from where the Captain was leaning on him to look him in the eyes. 

“Anytime.” He smiled, “I mean it. I’m here for you. I’m in your corner. If you’ll have me that is.” 

“That depends.” Pat felt a clench of worry because he saw the Captain smirking, and then with a raised eyebrow he added, “Will you have me too?”  
Pat reached out to slap him playfully on the chest. 

“God, course I will, you daft ‘apeth.” 

Pat was rewarded with a genuine huff of laughter and a smile from the Captain. He watched the corners by his eyes crinkle. He couldn’t help but give him a small peck on the cheek. 

“We should probably go back to the others now, right?” He asked, then added, “But maybe we could meet just us later?”

“Yes!” The Captain said a bit too quickly and enthusiastically. A splash of red stained his cheeks. He ducked his head into Pat’s shoulder. 

“No, no, come up. Off we go. They’ll all want to see you’re ok and that you haven’t done unspoken things to me with your stick.”

Pat laughed as the Captain spluttered, walking him out of the room with a firm hand on his back. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They wandered into the living room where everyone gathered to discuss what had happened. Alison was catching Mike up, with her head in her hands. 

“Hullo. Everything’s ok, guys!” Pat announced them, still prodding the Captain forward into the room. He had tensed up when he had heard voices and Pat was convinced that he would have fled to try to avoid the awkwardness if Pat had not been there. 

“Did you avoid a good banging from the Captain then?” Mary asked loudly, lifting her hand and swinging it down as if hitting something on the head with a stick. 

“Good lord.” The Captain muttered. 

Pat faltered for a second, then regained his composure. 

“Oh yes, yes. We just talked for a little while, didn’t we?”

The Captain coughed awkwardly. 

“Yes. We did. And I will say this now, I have no desire or need to talk to anyone else about what happened today.” He was back to his usual self in front of them, his back ramrod straight, heels together. 

“Kiss and make up, did you?” Julian teased, wiggling his eyebrows. 

“What?! No!” Pat and the Captain spluttered at the same time. 

Julian narrowed his eyes at them. 

“Riiight. Anywho.” 

“Yes, I believe it’s my turn to talk about my new favourite song.” Thomas stood up and strode in front of them all. For once, the Captain was grateful for the other ghost’s single-mindedness. 

“It’s by the Smiths, and it is titled, Please Please Please (Let Me Get What I Want).” He cast a forlorn, dramatic look at Alison, who sat hand in hand with an oblivious Mike. 

“Christ.” Alison rolled her eyes. 

“I will give you my own rendition now.” 

In the uproar that followed, Pat and the Captain walked round to stand together behind the sofa. Pat caught the Captain’s eye and they smiled at each other. There was a lot unsaid in that look, in that smile. It said that they had time to talk about the things Teddy had mentioned, time for Alison to hang up the photo of him and Joanie, time for the Captain to spend a whole day describing her to Pat, time for sneaking around to spend nights stargazing, time to dance to records alone, with Pat’s head on the Captain’s shoulder, time for hidden smiles and kisses, time for _unhidden_ smiles and kisses, much to the surprise of the others.  
But for today, if they stood closer together than usual, with their shoulders brushing lightly, and if they left the room together later and couldn’t be found, well, that was their business, and certainly not anyone else’s.


End file.
